The Galactic Nomads

The Search

It was a very long and drawn out day and night of mourning. But eventually, Jean started to calm down.

She had always hated being emotional. It interfered with everything and felt awful. Regardless of what Ray told her about emotions being normal, she hated it.

"Uh.... Are you feeling better?" Ray asked quietly.

"I guess..." Jean said, letting out a long sigh.

"We're probably the last of our group left...," Jean said, slowly.

"Yeah..." Ray replied, also letting out a sigh.

"Shit... How the fuck are we gonna get out of this mess?!" Jean shouted. "Our ship has exploded, over half our crew is dead, I can't fucking see, and we're stranded on a gem-controlled planet!!"

"Yeah... That's pretty insane..." Ray agreed.

"And I hate being blind! I haven't even seen this planet properly yet!" Jean bemoaned.

For a while, Ray didn't respond.

"Well, I do have one idea," Ray said, finally. "But I don't think you'll like it."

"It's fine. Just tell me," Jean said.

She decided that no matter what Ray said, she was not going to freak out.

"We can try to salvage some parts from Drake's brain to help you see," said Ray, tentatively.

Jean was shocked, and a little disgusted with his brother for coming up with such a messed up idea.

"Okay .... What?! It wasn't bad enough to hear that my childhood friend just died?! Now you're talking about taking a piece of his brain, just to help me see?!" Jean shouted.

"I knew you wouldn't approve. But there really is no other choice, if you think about it..." Ray said.

God dammit. .... He's right.... Jean thought. Why did he have to be right?

"You're right..." Jean said, finally.

"Believe me, it wouldn't have been my first choice either. But we have no other options." Ray said.

"Obviously I know that it wouldn't be your first choice!" Jean snapped. "Let's just get to it!"

WTF?! Of course you wouldn't just vandalize someone's brain in an ideal situation! You would've just grown the part you needed! Jean thought. She felt annoyed that he would just mention something so obvious. Why rub the facts in her face, when she had already agreed?

"Okay!" Ray said. "Now I'm going to have to isolate the problem by opening your brain hatch again."

"Alright..." Jean said, passively.

She could feel Ray's hands groping around in there, but she still couldn't see a thing.

"Welp, it looks like the problem is your visual processor," Ray said.

"I'm assuming it can't be recovered, right?" Jean asked.

"Yeah, we're going to have to replace it with Drake's," Ray responded.

"Okay..." Jean said with a sigh.

All that she could do was sit there and listen to Ray dismantle her best friend's visual system. She realized that the thought was dark, but, like Ray was quite fond of reminding her, they didn't have another choice.

Soon enough she felt him again inside of her skull, installing the component. And gradually she felt the vision returning to her eyes.

"Did it work? Can you see?!" Ray asked anxiously.

"Yes!" Jean replied.

She was soon able to see the dark sky and grayish purple sand hills, as well as the wreckage and rubble, which was their ship.

And then ... she saw Drake's crippled body.

The tears welled up in her eyes again.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked.

"I'm fine! Just go on ahead. I'll catch up!" She shouted.

"Okay..." Ray said, as he left.

When he was gone, Jean knelt before Drake's body, picked him up and kissed him.

Then she dropped him suddenly, and ran after her brother.

After walking for nearly an hour, dazed and aimless, they realized they had climbed a small hill. Looking down on the crash site, they let their predicament sink in.

They stared at the trail of smoke and debris. The biggest piece of debris was the rear end of the ship, where they had found Drake. For a long time, they just stopped and stared.

"Holy shit..." Jean breathed.

"That ship was all we had, and now there are bits of it there, there, and over there," Ray observed, blankly. "H-How the heck are we supposed to get off this planet?!"

Suddenly, Jean had an idea.

"I've got it! Since this is a gem-controlled planet, odds are they'll be sending one of their recovery shuttles to come look for us, or at least clean up the debris." She explained.

"Why is that a good thing?!?" Ray asked concerned.

"Because, dummy! When they land, we can sabotage their ship and fly away!" Jean responded.

"Uhh, I-I don't know .... That sounds a little too risky..." Ray mumbled.

"Do you have a better idea?!" Jean challenged.

"No...," Ray admitted.

Six hours later (one full day, on this planet), and still no recovery ship had come to collect the debris.

"What the fuck?! Why are they taking so long?!" Jean yelled, impatient, "This is not normal gem procedure!"

"I agree," Ray said. "Maybe the planet we saw wasn't a gem-controlled planet after all??"

"Of course it is!!! Why else was there an era 2 gem warship patrolling!?" Jean challenged.

"It could have been leading an attack...," Ray offered, hesitantly.

"On what?! Us?!" Jean asked, feeling doubtful.

"Well, maybe it was attacking a neighboring planet?" Ray asked, sounding unsure.

"There were no other planets around!" Jean argued.

Although Ray could have been right, Jean realized. After all, even though they didn't detect any planets besides this one, that didn't mean there weren't any in this solar system.

"Regardless, something clearly isn't adding up," Ray noted. "We obviously can't recover any of our ship's sensor logs. So I suggest we explore to see if this planet has any gem structures,"

"Alright," Jean responded.

And with that, the two set off.

Jean wanted to stay within proximity of the wreckage. But Ray kept going further and further away from it. She was going to bring it up to him, but realized there was no point. There was nothing there for them now she thought, with a sigh.